Page 52 of Undeniable

His grip tightened on the wheel, and he was silent for several more seconds. I thought he would ignore the question completely, but he finally took a deep breath and shifted in his seat.

“Just the usual.‘I’ll kill you if you hurt her.’and‘I know where you live.’The same things you would expect a brother to say to the guy hanging out with his sister.”

I willed him to look at me, but his eyes were fixed on the road.

He wasn’t telling me the whole truth.

“I can’t believe they did that, that they came at you like that.” I hoped he’d say more, especially hearing the anger that seeped into every word, but he just glanced at me a little longer than he had before.

I knew there was something more. Forrest must have said something else to him to make him shut me out, but I also knew he wouldn’t tell me. Whether to protect me or to keep things between all of us amicable, I likely wouldn’t know his motive and I wasn’t going to get it out of him right then.

But I could feel him overthinking the entire interaction and every word that was said. I didn’t want it to sour the week we had left together. It was supposed to be our best week. One where we made use of every single second.

“I knew it would likely happen. I expected it, honestly, if Forrest ever found out.”

“That doesn’t excuse what they—”

He didn’t even let me finish before he agreed. “No, it doesn’t. But I still understand it.”

I let out a breath, but I couldn’t let it go. “I just don’t want this to ruin the last week we have,” I added quietly. The vulnerability in the statement made me fidget.

“It won’t,” he stated like it was already decided and that he wasn’t stone-faced, giving me one or two-word responses.

“You sure?”

“Yes, why?”

The cool vinyl stuck to the exposed skin of my thighs as I tried to readjust on the seat. “Because your face is telling me that you’re not.”

He snorted, and finally, I felt a little bit of the unease in the air dissipate. “My face? What about my face?”

“You’re making a face like you don’t want to be here anymore. Like you’d rather just turn the truck around.”

With surprising speed, James unclicked my seat belt and braced a hand around my thigh. He tugged me across the seat and lifted the middle belt to hand to me. Although we were only a minute or two from our destination, I fastened it while James folded his arm over my shoulders and tucked me into his side.

It was my favorite place to be and a feeling I’d remember forever. Curled under his protective arm, with the warm, summer air swirling around us as we drove the desolate, dark back roads.

He pressed a lingering kiss to my head and took a deep breath. “Unfortunately, Killer, there’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be.”

EIGHTEEN

Ivy

“Mom told me,but I couldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.” Forrest, my brother, dropped a box of my face-painting supplies down at my booth and stared over my shoulder, where I knew James was helping hang the banner with my dad.

Forrest wasn’t the first person to say something to me about“bringing James home,”and I knew he wouldn’t be the last. The two of us had been an integral part of the town gossip for the past thirteen years, and although no one knew exactly what happened, that didn’t stop everyone from trying to figure it out. Or, at the very least, come up with their own very inaccurate version of events.

The lack of a definitive story meant the rumor mill was creative even more than a decade later. And it was always worse when James was in Willowwood.

“I swear if you say something stupid like being thankful that I brought him home, I’m going to hurl this chair at your head.”

Forrest’s laugh was forced and fake as he leaned against the table, crossing his arms over his chest. “Trust me, I won’t. But whatisgoing on with you two? You work at a bar his friends own or something? The fact that you haven’t told me about it in all the times we’ve talked makes me think you’re hiding something.”

And it was for that exact reason I’d refrained from mentioning our run-in to my brother. He’d never been team James and Ivy,and even thirteen years later, that was still his stance. He vehemently believed that we couldn’t and wouldn’t be good for each other. That we were too different and only brought out the worst in one another, that no matter what, James was still a playboy, and I was nothing but one of his victims.

Whether I agreed didn’t matter, but it annoyed me that Forrest made his opinion my problem.

“Yes,” I sighed, knowing I wasn’t getting out of the conversation until I’d assuaged his concerns. It was easier to do it quickly. “It was an insane coincidence. His best friends own the bar where I bartend a few nights a week.”

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